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Culture, Diffusion, and Economic Development: The Problem of Observational Equivalence

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  • Harutyunyan, Ani
  • Özak, Ömer

Abstract

This research explores the direct and barrier effects of culture on economic development. It shows both theoretically and empirically that whenever the technological frontier is at the top or bottom of the world distribution of a cultural value, there exists an observational equivalence between absolute cultural distances and cultural distances relative to the frontier, preventing the identification of its direct and barrier effects. Since the technological frontier usually has the ``right'' cultural values for development, it tends to be in the extremes of the distribution of cultural traits, generating observational equivalence and confounding the analysis. These results highlight the difficulty of disentangling the direct and barrier effects of culture. The empirical analysis finds suggestive evidence for direct effects of individualism and conformity with hierarchy, and barrier effects of hedonism.

Suggested Citation

  • Harutyunyan, Ani & Özak, Ömer, 2016. "Culture, Diffusion, and Economic Development: The Problem of Observational Equivalence," MPRA Paper 80228, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2017.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80228
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    Cited by:

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    2. Goran Maksimović & Srđan Jović & David Jovović & Marina Jovović, 2019. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Analyses of Economic Development Based on Different Factors," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 53(3), pages 1103-1109, March.
    3. Jaeggi, Adrian & Legge, Stefan & Schmid, Lukas, 2018. "Dyadic value distance: Determinants and consequences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 48-53.
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    5. Qin, Yu & Ruan, Jianqing & Wang, Ling & Yan, Jubo, 2022. "Genetic distance and intra-national variation in preferences and behaviours," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Comparative economic development; cultural differences; barriers to technological diffusion; individualism; power distance; vertical hierarchy; hedonism; linguistic distance; genetic distance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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